VLN: Back on the road to success

The changeable conditions with occasional rain showers made tire selection at the seventh VLN race on September 28 a challenge for the drivers and their teams. In his fifth Nordschleife outing this year, Mettler managed the triple with the bright yellow "Knuffi" Mercedes-AMG GT4 from Black Falcon: pole position in the SP8T class dominated by GT4 sports cars, fastest race lap and victory with partner Mehmet Kaya from Turkey.

Champagne out of respect
Their fiercest rival was an Aston Martin Vantage driven by ex-GP driver Martin Brundle and his son Alex. After the Mercedes initially took the lead, the two teams alternated at the front. The experienced Black Falcon team excelled with the right tire strategy and ultimately prevailed on a drying track.

This was the third Nordschleife victory of the current season for the Lucerne native, with which the equally fast Turk extended his lead in the class winner's trophy. The Brundles also paid tribute to this sporting achievement - they treated their victorious opponents to a bottle of champagne at dinner!

Successful strategy
Due to the changeable weather conditions, mathilda racing split the strategies in order to be perfectly prepared for all conditions. One of the Cologne-based racing team's two Cupra TCR cars took to the track on slicks after the first pit stop, while the sister car was fitted with rain tires.

This worked so well that Frédéric Yerly and his German partner Matthias Wasel, successfully supported for the second time by Roland Schmid from Basel, celebrated their fourth win of the season. In the previous VLN race on September 7, Wasel/Yerly had to settle for fourth place due to a defect in the shift linkage.

Wasel and Yerly are now also well on their way to the championship title in the TCR class. The equally fast VW duo Gülden/Leuchter also had this in their sights. However, the VW Golf GTI TCR of Max Kruse Racing retired shortly after the halfway point of the race while leading with a defective drive shaft. After their fifth retirement in addition to two victories, they are out of the title race.

Second place for Jasmin Preisig
Meanwhile, the sister car continued to complete its laps without any problems. After temporarily falling a little behind due to the capricious weather, double starter Benny Leuchter (VW works driver and WTCR driver), Jasmin Preisig and final driver Loris Prattes fought their way back to the Cupra TCR of Yerly/Wasel/Schmid with strong lap times. After 23 race laps, they were beaten by less than 20 seconds - the Appenzeller has never been so close to winning the TCR class.

Double victory for Mercedes with the help of Mortara
Team GetSpeed Performance with Dominik Baumann/Fabian Schiller (A/D) took overall victory for the first time. Their brand colleagues Edoardo Mortara, Tim Scheerbarth and Lance David Arnold finished second, just 42.5 seconds behind after 25 laps.

The man from Geneva, who drives under a Swiss license but competes as an Italian for Mercedes customer teams in the VLN, started the four-hour race from fourth position and brought the black Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the pit stop on course for a podium finish. In the final hour of the race, the trio, starting in this constellation for the first time, established themselves in second position and thus ensured a one-two victory for the brand with the three-pointed star.

More podium places for the Swiss
Ivan Jacoma in a Porsche Cayman GT4 CS (Cup 3), Willy Hüppi in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (SP7) and the brothers Michael and Martin Kroll, Alexander Prinz (Michael's German son-in-law) and Bernd Küpper (German team partner of Hofor Racing) also took second place in their classes. They achieved this with the BMW E46 3 CSL in the H4 and the M3 CSL in the SP6 with an identical line-up.

Manuel Amweg also achieved another podium on the Nordschleife. In the class won by Mettler's team, the driver from Aargau finished third together with the Germans Arne Hoffmeister and Florian Wolf in a BMW M4 GT4 from Leutheuser Racing.

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